The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-12-08
SOUTHERN FARMERS MUST OR
CAME.

Extract from q Speech OF l. ". UdcNHe,
President of the Farmers National Ali
ance, Delivered before the Hter-States
Couvention Of Farmers IN AHanto,
August, 1887. (CO
We must either quit buying to
satisfy a stage Of material progress
that necessitates all-cash transactions,
or we must adopt a course of action
that will enable us to produce accord
ing to a more advanced stage of ma
terial progress than the one in which
barter is essential. Do not misunder-
stand this proposition. 1t is not in
tended to preach economy to the most
economical people in the union, it is
not intended to insult the farmers Of
the South by saying you must work
harder and spend less. No, no! They
already work harder and spend less
than any class in America and it is
the most hollow mockery or earth to
preach economy, frugality and indus
try to the class that most excel in
those virtues, and who are supporting
in ease and luxury many who can lay
no claim to either one of those virtues,
and to very few others.
We must pursue one Of two courses
We must either devise some plan by
which with some exchange of products
we can render our farms s~elf-suDpOrt-
ing and raise only SO much Of the cash
crops as may be needed to satisfy our
necessary relations with the rest of the
world. This will be very hard to do
much harder than it would have
been a few years agO-because IN
taking the step we plant ourselves
fairly and squarely in the track Of a
material progress that requires the all
cash transactions and say, wait, stop
till we catch up We are going to make
u W tricks we cal make and
raise our own supplies until we get out
of debt. By SC doing we will an
tagonize certain interest that will in
self-defence offer our individual mem
bers such extraordinary induce
ments, accompanied with such seduc-
tive sOphistry, that many will be de-
c".rr, j..~Ieby, and the plan. in the
future, as it has already been in the
past, will be almost a complete failure.
| can see but n way to make it a
probable success, and even that is sub
ject to some doubt. 1t is organization.
If we decide to raise what we will
consume at home, the effort will be a
stroke in the dark, unless it is the re-
c,l+ ~ -;-o oox.1o- +o e H.
question and all its surroundings and
unless cO-Operated in by all Of our
class as can only be done by a closer
union and by a firm bond of Organiza-
ton. If it is decided to reduce the
acreage Of any given crop, Organiza-
ton. is a vital necessity to the end that
no mistake IS made and that all will
cooperate, and a strong organization.
so that we NAV have some assurance
that all will stick, and that we. our
selues, as we'll as others, may have
some confidence in the compact. In
short, you cannot hope to succeed in
any innovation upon the existing
order of things and the tendency Of
the times, without concert of action,
that will enable you to withstand the
attact Of the antagonizers that must
necessarily follow, and in proportion
to the magnitude of the undertaking,
the compact should be made more
close and binding.
The second great remedy is in an
entirely different or opposite direction.
Instead of calling upon material pro
gress to wait for us to catch up on a
plane of all cash or money transac-
tions, simply step upon that plane and
say we will deal with you according
to the development of material pro-
gress in your section and we have
raised u products to meet the emer-
gencies and conditions Of the same
stage. But how may we do that ? Let
us see. The cotton belt Of America
is a circumscribed country, and [ am
told that in no other place in the wide
world does. the same quality of cotton
grow to the anne degree Of perfection.
At this time We are growing about
sever millions of bales per annum.
And | offer you as a proof of the fact
that there is not an over-production,
the evidence that there is no accumu-
lation. [ have no means of estimating
the proportion of the area of these
States, but with the present increase
of population throughout the world,
and the increased uses to which the
staple is applied, it can be relatively